Vermont Foodways Cultural Heritage ProjectFood habitsThis database was prepared as part of the Cultural History component of the Taste of Plate / Palate Project undertaken by the VT Agency of Agriculture in 2010. It is intended to provide researchers and others interested in the history of Vermont’s food traditions with a comprehensive overview of the secondary literature on this topic. It includes sources on Vermont agriculture, some diaries and memoirs which involve discussion of food traditions, some cookbooks by older Vermonters, and literature on New England’s food traditions.Munkres, Susanhttp://www.zotero.org/groups/vermont_foodways_cultural_heritage_projectThe Freedom of FarmingFarmingGert reflects on her passion for farming.Lepine, GertrudeWomenspeak: Voices of Vermont Women Memories, Reflections, ExperiencesVermont Folklife Centerhttp://vermontfolklifecenter.org/multimedia/womenspeak/womenspeak_lepine/m3u/lepine002.m3uHard CiderCiderIn this account of her childhood in Braintree, VT, Katharine elaborates on the many roles held by apple cider.Duclos, KatharineWomenspeak: Voices of Vermont Women Memories, Reflections, ExperiencesVermont Folklife Centerhttp://vermontfolklifecenter.org/multimedia/womenspeak/womenspeak_duclos/m3u/duclos002.m3uDeer StoriesDeer huntingHunting is as fundamental to Vermont's cultural heritage as dairy farming, and its lineage reaches back beyond the arrival of the first European settlers. But as Vermont has changed, knowledge of hunting is no longer universal and some Vermonters are entirely outside its culture.
Based on interviews with hunters conducted by the Vermont Folklife Center, the Deer Stories series does not advocate for hunting but rather explores the experience from an insider’s point of view. In programs that range from tracking to taking an animal’s life, deer hunters introduce us to their world through stories that illustrate its culture, practices, and core values.
The twenty-three narrators featured in this series were chosen for their passion, knowledge, commitment and excellence as deer hunters, and their stories are representative of stories heard many times over in the course of this research.Vermont Folklife Centerhttp://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/multimedia/radio/deer-stories/Foodways Food habitsIn conjunction with foodways demonstrations set up by the VFC for festivals around the state, the archive includes a collection of interviews with cooks which explore the interrelationship of food, heritage, and identity. These interviews also document the histories of individual families, the immigration history of particular ethnic/cultural groups, and the values and institutions of these communities.Vermont Folklife Center ArchiveVermont Folklife Center ArchiveFarming and farm life, rural community FarmingThis is the largest body of material in the archive, and it includes VFC folklorist Gregory Sharrow's dissertation research on the culture of farm life, research for a radio series on contemporary farm experience, research for the exhibit "Making and Remaking Vermont Farmsteads" (supported by an NEH grant), as well as interviews documenting change in the rural countryside. These materials span the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and document farm culture, the fabric of community, dairy farm operation, and the trajectory of the massive changes that occurred over the course of the past century. They offer an in-depth personal look at the ways in which individual farmers responded to the challenges of increasing mechanization, new management strategies, depressed milk prices, the loss of farm community--to name only a few examples. Thus these interviews represent a critical mass of information that is an extraordinary research resource because they touch on an array of social, cultural, political, economic, and technological issues.Vermont Folklife Center ArchiveVermont Folklife Center ArchiveEthnic culturesEthnicity--VermontThis collections explores the immigration history, cultural traditions, identity, and contemporary experience of cultural groups throughout the state. Field research documented the experience of immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries including families of Native American, African American, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Finnish, Swedish, Franco-American German, Austrian, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Italian, Jewish, Russian, Spanish, El Salvadoran, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, and Yankee ancestries. This collection also includes fieldwork done with Jamaican migrant labor for the apple orchards and interviews with recent immigrants from Chile, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Ecuador done in conjunction with the Burlington Latino Festival.Vermont Folklife Center ArchiveVermont Folklife Center ArchiveHunting, fishing, and trappinghuntingThe bulk of the hunting materials focus on deer hunting in Vermont and Maine with additional interviews on moose, bear, turkey and other game birds. The interviews include information on habitat, strategy, and technique, traditional knowledge, social context, change across time, and environmental issues. The fishing materials document the full range of fishing in the region: from native brook trout to land-lock salmon and from catch-and-release fly fishing to commercial ice fishing. The collection also includes historic materials on the sturgeon fishery and such now outlawed practices as seine fishing. Trapping interviews include an array of information on animal habitat and behavior as well as general woods-lore, and document such related activities as hunting and harvesting ginseng. The collection also includes interviews with game wardens and hunting/fishing guides.Vermont Folklife Center ArchiveVermont Folklife Center ArchiveUnloading maple sap into sugarhouseAgricultural laborersHorsesMaple sugar industryMen pouring maple sap from a horse drawn wagon, which drains into a container in a sugarhouse.Toussaint, TennieTennie Toussaint PhotographsUVM Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives1900http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/item/uvmsctous4003bGroup with horses in front of a sugarhouseMaple sugar industryAgricultural laborersHorsesHorses pulling sap into the sugarhouse. Man pictured in the doorway. Smoke coming from chimney. Boy pictured in front with sled. Two individuals pictured in the back, one is driving the horses, the other is carrying two buckets. Toussaint, TennieTennie Toussaint PhotographsUVM Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives1900http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/item/uvmsctous4004